Load Shedding

Dr Zayed Huneiti
Balancing Generation and Demand
Losing Power
 Effect of excess load on power generating
equipment
In power systems, an excess load puts a stress on the generating
equipment. It slows down the prime movers, associated generators and
other parts of the system as they attempt to cope with the excess load.
This leads to a combination of events including power swings and
overloads which can cause the system becoming unstable. Some of the
parts such as protection systems may interrupt the supply due to the
excess current resulting from the overload.
The higher load may also lead to a lower generating and supply frequency.
Even though the hydro generating systems can tolerate up to 10%
frequency change, the thermal generator’s operation will be affected since
they are more sensitive. A five percent decrease can reduce the generated
power significantly due a decrease in the energy to the turbine generator.
The reduced frequency can damage the steam turbines as well as the
frequency sensitive load. As such, most generator systems incorporate
under-frequency relays to automatically disconnect some of the excess
load.
 Cascaded Events

Some Basic Patterns

• Line tripping due to overloading
• Generator tripping due to over-excitation
• Line tripping due to loss of synchronism
• Generator tripping due to abnormal voltage
and frequency system condition
• Under-frequency/voltage load shedding

5
Frequency Variations in Jordan
Voltage Variations in Jordan
European Grid Code Requirements
European Grid Code Frequency Ranges
• The Network Code on Grid Connection defines a
common set of requirements for power generating
facilities, including synchronous generating units,
power park module sand offshore generation
facilities.

• In case of deviation of the network frequency from its

nominal value, due to a deviation within the
frequency ranges and time periods specified, any
automatic disconnection of a generating unit from the
network shall be prohibited and power infeed shall
be maintained within the limits specified.
 Overload Influence
Sudden and large change in generation due to
the outage or tripping of a generator may result
in a severe imbalance between generation and
load demand. This may lead to a rapid decline in
frequency, since the system could not respond
fast enough.
 Overload Influence

50
50
49
49
10%
10% Overload
Overload
48
48
47
47
(Hz)
Frequency (Hz)

46
46
Frequency

45
45 30%
30% Overload
Overload
44
44
43
43 50%
50% Overload
Overload
42
42
100%
100% Overload
Overload
41
41
40
40
00 22 44 66 88 10
10 12
12 14
14 16
16 18
18 20
20
Time
Time (seconds)
(seconds)
 Load Shedding
Load shedding in electrical supply networks is a
controlled process in which the utility company
drops off part of the load in order to balance
the demand and the generated capacity. This is
often done whenever there is excess load on
the system. In standby generators, it involves
disconnecting or shedding some circuits to
prevent an overload condition
Load Shedding
Energy Balance
 Behavior of power system with
the change of frequency

Operating Frequency System Condition

No Change (constant) Total Generation = Total Load
+ Total Losses
Increase Total Generation > Total Load
+ Total Losses
Decrease Total Generation <Total Load +
Total Losses
Load Shedding Techniques
Chart explaining under-frequency/under-voltage load
shedding
Catastrophic Power Outages

18
 Examples of Major North American Blackouts
Uncontrolled Cascading Failures

Date Location Load Interrupted

November 9, 1965 Northeast 20,000 MW

July 13, 1977 New York 6,000 MW

December 22, 1982 West Coast 12,350 MW

March 13, 1989 Quebec 21,350 MW

January 17, 1994 California 7,500 MW

December 14, 1994 Wyoming, Idaho 9,336 MW

July 2, 1996 Wyoming, Idaho 11,743 MW

August 10, 1996 Western Interconnection 30,489 MW

June 25, 1998 Midwest 950 MW

August 14, 2003 Northeast 61,800 MW

September 8, 2011 San Diego 7,835 MW

19
 Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)
system - Aug 10th, 1996 Blackout

Initiating events System becomes unstable Blackout

15:48 p.m. Keeler-Allston 500-kV line
contacts a tree due to inadequate right-of-
way maintenance. Additionally the Pearl-
Keeler line is forced out of service due to the
Keeler 500/230-Kv transformer being Out-
Of-Step (OOS).
Mild .224 Hz oscillations were seen The WECC broke into 4 asynchronous
throughout the system and began to appear islands with heavy loss of load.
on of the Pacific DC Intertie (PDCI). 7.5 million people lost power.
Shunt capacitor banks were switched in to
raise the voltage but the oscillations were
not being damped.

With the loss of these 2 lines, 5 lines are now

out of service, removing hundreds of 15:48:51 p.m. Oscillations on the POI
MVAR. reached 1000MW and 60-kV peak-to-peak. WA

MT ND

OR

Lines throughout the system begin to ID

SD

experience overloads as well as low voltage PDCI Remedial Action Schemes (RAS) WY

conditions. Additional lines trip due to began to actuate. Shunt and series NV NE

sagging. capacitors were inserted. UT

CA CO

15:47:40-15:48:57 p.m. Generators at the AZ

NM
McNary power house supplying 494 MVAR
trip. The system begins to experience “mild
oscillations”.

20
 Eastern Interconnection –
August 14th, 2003 Blackout

Initiating events System becomes unstable Blackout

1:07 p.m. FE turns off their state
estimator for troubleshooting.
1:31 p.m. Eastlake 5 generation unit
trips and shuts down.
2:02 p.m. Stuart-Atlanta 345-kV line tips
off due to contact with a tree.
4:05:57 p.m. The loss of 138-kV lines 265 power plants tripped off line and 50
overloads the Sammis-Star line. million people were without power in 8
states in the US and 2 Canadian
provinces affected
4:08:59 p.m. Galion-Ohio and Central-
Muskinghun 345-kV lines trip on Zone 3
causing major power swings through
New York and Ontario and into
Michigan.

2:14 p.m. FE’s control room lost alarm

functions followed by a number of the Low voltage/ high load conditions and ND ME

EMS consoles. system disturbances propagate MN VT

NH

through the system tripping

MI
SD NY MA
WI
CT RI

2:54 p.m. The primary and secondary transmission lines and generators. IA PA
NE NJ
OH

alarms servers failed. IL IN

WV
MD
DE

KS VA
MO
KY

NC

3:05:41-3:57:35 p.m. 3 345-kV lines trip 4:13 p.m. most of the North East and OK
AR
TN

SC

due to contact with trees. This parts of Canada blacked out. There MS AL GA

overloads the underlying 138-kV were only a few islands which remain LA

system and depressed voltages. operating.

FL

3:39:17-4:08:59 p.m. 16 138-kV lines trip

due to overloading. 21
 Load Shedding
 Studies have shown that the August 10th 1996
blackout could have been prevented if just 0.4% of
the total system load had been dropped for 30
minutes.

 According to the Final National/North American

Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Report on
August 14, 2003, Blackout, at least 1,500 to 2,500
MW of load in Cleveland-Akron area had to be
shed, prior to the loss of the 345-kV Sammis-Star
line, to prevent the blackout.
22
 Load Shedding Procedures
• Utility companies use scheduled load shedding so that the
available electricity is fairly shared by the consumers. This
involves switching off some parts of the electricity supply
network in a planned and controlled process. They alternate
between different parts and time schedules to ensure that at
least everyone gets power at a specific time. By dropping off the
excess load, the power system remains stable.
• Some smaller generators such as those used in domestic
applications have inbuilt load shedding capabilities. This becomes
necessary when these are used as standby generators, in the
event of a utility power outage, the emergency supply kicks in.
And since all the circuits and appliances are connected, the load
demand may exceed the generator capacity. When the load
becomes too much, the generator sheds some of the smaller non-
critical circuits automatically in an attempt to reduce the load.
 Automatic Load Shedding

 Under Voltage

 Under Frequency

 Rate of Frequency Decrease

 Remedial Action Scheme

Remedial Action Scheme (RAS) is a scheme designed to
detect predetermined System conditions and
automatically take corrective actions that may include, but
are not limited to, adjusting or tripping generation (MW
and Mvar), tripping load, or reconfiguring a System(s). 24
 Adaptive Self-healing:
Load Shedding Agent
• A control action might fail
• Unsupervised adaptive learning method should be
deployed
• Reinforcement Learning
– Autonomous learning method based on
interactions with the agent’s environment
– If an action is followed by a satisfactory state,
the tendency to produce the action is
strengthened
power system frequency variations during
the UFLS operation
 power system frequency variations during
the UFLS operation
The Figure presents an example of a frequency variation
during operation of the frequency actuated load
shedding system. The point f<fnom corresponds to the
moment of active power deficiency appearance in the
power system. From this moment the frequency drop
starts. When the power system frequency reaches the
level of a first load shedding setting fset1, the first part of
the load is disconnected. The next part of the load will
be disconnected when frequency reaches second load
shedding setting fset2. With each next load shedding step
rate-of-change of frequency decline is cut down and after
a certain moment the increase of frequency takes place.
 Under Frequency Load Shedding
UFLS
• To prevent extended operation of separated areas at low frequency, load shedding
schemes are employed.
A typical scheme for USA:
– 10% load shed when frequency drops to 59.2 Hz
– 15% additional load shed when frequency drops to 58.8 Hz
– 20% additional load shed when frequency reaches 58.0 Hz
• A scheme based on frequency alone is generally acceptable for generation deficiency up
to 25%
• For greater generation deficiencies, a scheme taking into account both frequency drop
and rate-of-change of frequency provides increased selectivity
– Ontario Hydro uses such a frequency trend relay
Tripping Logic for Frequency Trend Relay

Total Load
Shedding
of 50%

When the frequency reaches 48.5 Hz, all the load is shed.
UFLS for European Networks
Load Shedding Options
Advantages of load shedding
Load shedding impacts negatively on consumers and in particular
the manufacturers and industries that rely on electricity.
 Prevents overloading and damage of the power generators

 Prevents instability and system collapse of the electrical

generation and distribution systems

 Ensures that consumers or parts of the network have power as

opposed to a total blackout.

 The planned schedules ensure that available capacity is shared

fairly and each consumer gets power at one time or another.

 It serves as a warning to the utility hence forcing them to

increase capacity, and efficiency so as to meet the demand.
 Disadvantages of load shedding

Loss of production
Increased crime due to darkness and lack of jobs
The utilities may not increased the output
Restoring the load may cause more instabilities
 Over and Under-frequency Load Shedding

53
53
Maximum
Maximum Recovery
Recovery Frequency
Frequency
52
52

51
51 Example
Example of
of over-shedding
over-shedding
(Hz)
Frequency (Hz)

50
50
Frequency

49
49 Example
Example of
of under-shedding
under-shedding

48
48
Minimum
Minimum Recovery
Recovery Frequency
Frequency
47
47

46
46
00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 10
10 11
11 12
12 13
13 14
14 15
15 16
16 17
17 18
18 19
19 20
20
Time
Time (seconds)
(seconds)
Operating Principle of Load Shedding Device
Example
• Electrical load shedding is a method of reducing the demand on
the electricity generation and achieved by switching off some
loads or energy supply to some geographical areas. This is
usually a last measure by the utilities, and often implemented to
prevent overloading the generating systems and eventual
collapse of the entire power system.
• Load shedding is one of the last things that a utility company
should look at. It leads to frustrated customers and loss of
revenue for the consumers as production drops. In addition, it
may cause equipment damage.
• Electricity companies should ensure that they have enough
capacity to meet normal and peak demands. This can be
achieved by planning for future electricity demand and
progressively upgrading the generating equipment, maintain
existing systems, reducing transmission losses and increasing
efficiency in the entire system